The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about matters Mr X raised with the Council during the development of a housing estate close to his home. This is because past matters fall outside our jurisdiction due to the passage of time and with regard to a more recent matter, there is no evidence to suggest fault by the Council sufficient to warrant an investigation.
The complaint
Mr X complains about the Council’s response to various issues he has raised since 2019 relating to the development of a housing estate close to his home. He says he has not been treated fairly by decisions made by the Council which have affected his property, including damage to his trees and the contamination of his water source.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended) We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide: there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or there is another body better placed to consider this complaint, or there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant, including the Council’s response to the complaint.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The restriction highlighted at paragraph 3 applies to past matters relating to the housing development of which Mr X complains. As we would reasonably have expected him to have complained about them to us sooner, they fall outside our jurisdiction due to the passage of time.
Mr X also complains about the more recent contamination of his water source as a result of work carried out at the development site by the developers. However, as he has been advised by the Council, this is a civil matter between the two parties and not the Council.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because past matters fall outside our jurisdiction due to the passage of time and with regard to a more recent matter, there is no evidence to suggest fault by the Council sufficient to warrant an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman